Apple is raising its revenue share for developers on the iAd mobile ad network. Apple Insider notes that the increase is an improvement of 10% for developers - now 70%. Considering the cash hordes of Apple, it will be interesting to see how Google responds with AdMob and its mobile ad network efforts in-app and on the mobile web. Read Greg Sterling's take on MarketingLand. It would seem possible that rev shares will continue tilting even more in the favor of developers as Google and Apple battle it out to win the mobile ads race by fueling incentives. Is 100% to developers far off? Visit Apple's developer blog. To date, iAd has struggled with its positioning as well-publicized rate cuts to advertisers hurt the brand's mojo.

MRAID For MROBILE

Mobile rich media provider Mixpo is looking to make noise by following the IAB's MRAID (Mobile Rich Media Ad Interface Definitions) spec which standardizes "mobile rich media ads that will run in mobile apps." Mixpo says it has partnered with video monetization platform Freewheel to expand its reach. FreeWheel VP of biz dev Brent Horowitz says in the press release, "Partnering with Mixpo for in-app advertising gives our global media customers the flexibility to monetize their video with more rich, personalized, and compelling interactive video ad experiences." Read more. Ahh, the push and pull of standardization. From here, it seems some ad tech companies don't want it -whether it's MRAID, VAST or some other acronym. For example, if an video ad network/tech vendor can create a network of publishers with reach and scale that uses a proprietary format - that's barrier-to-entry! Ch-ching. Closed makes money until the open world catches up - or closed becomes the new open. Ironically, little guys and big guys want to undo these proprietary networks as both see them as a threat. Hence, standardization efforts.

Amazon Forking Google

From the Flurry blog, the quiet media giant, Amazon, is said to be outperforming Google when it comes to mobile apps. Flurry head of marketing Peter Farago - a maestro of link bait - writes, "Amazon's bet to fork Android in order to put consumers into their own shopping experience on Kindle Fire appears to be paying off. Showing its commerce strength, Amazon already delivers more than three times the revenue in its app store compared to what Google generates for developers." Fork it.

First-Party DMP

AT&T AdWorks said late last week that it has partnered with DMP/DSP Turn for an audience management platform. According to a Turn release, "The jointly developed platform stores anonymous AT&T data within a private cloud, which protects consumer privacy by encrypting all data that leaves the private cloud." Turn CEO Bill Demas tells AdExchanger that's what's different about this private cloud solution is that it stores only ATT data: "Think of it as hermetically sealed. In this case we encrypt even the descriptors for the data and this is held safely behind the ATT firewall. No one other than ATT has access to the data and no one else can decrypt the data." Turn is getting deeper into the first-party data business. Hello Acxiom, Experian, etal.? Acxiom CEO Scott Howe used to be (AdExchanger Q&A) on Turn's board.. the plot thickens.

R-M-X-I-N-I

Neustar, owners of TARGUSinfo, is taking part of its R&D to the University of Illinois campus (I-L-L, I-N-I) and fund the Neustar Innovation Center which the press release says will explore and address a range of "big data" issues including fraud prevention and large scale networking. Leading the division will be a former Yahoo!, Ken Taylor (LinkedIn), who will "serve as the director of the Neustar Innovation Center. Prior to joining Neustar, Taylor served as technology principal for Yahoo! Right Media Exchange where he focused on large-scale data processing, collection and analysis." Read more. This isn't the first time a public or private company has funded research at a university, but considering the constraints around hiring and the growing cash at certain media tech companies, this sort of deal may make increasing sense.

Facebook Ads, India, Exchanges

In TechCircle.in, Nandana Das claims there is a battle brewing in India between Ozone Media, which has a inked a deal to sell various types of ad placements on Facebook, and Komli Media. Komli's India managing director Gulshan Verma says his company has an exclusive deal to sell "premium" placements in India - and that Ozone sells the same Facebook media everyone else does in India. Read more. Verma tells TechCircle.in, "From time to time, Facebook does make available some inventory on Google Ad Exchange, which only large-volume bidders on the exchange have access to."

European Gloom?

"Online retail sales grew 18% in Europe in 2011, even as the region struggled with a financial crisis," begins Mark Brohan of Internet Retailer as he covers new data from UK-based The Centre for Retail Research. Anecdotal evidence points to success across Europe in e-Commerce. For example, Brohan writes, "In Germany, Otto Group, No. 2 in the Top 400 Europe, used a mix of new business development and better customer service to grow its e-commerce revenue 26.3% in its 2011 fiscal year to 4.8 billion euros ($6.2 billion)." Read more. More e-Commerce means more European, display ad retargeting opportunities.

Measuring Transactions

Boutique investment bank Petsky Prunier takes its turn tallying the mergers and acquisitions data for the first quarter of 2011. The company says that in the marketing, media, tech and service industries transaction value was up 44% compared to Q4 2011. Also on a quarter-over-quarter basis, transaction volume was down 6%. Also of note - Groupon had the most strategic transactions in the quarter at 5. View the release (PDF). Facebook will surely be in this ballpark once the IPO hits.